Coach Claude Julien knew the question was coming, so he couldn’t help but laugh. But deep down, he knew it was legitimate.

Last year his Bruins were in the exact same position as they are today against Detroit. After an emotional overtime road victory, they were up 3-1 with a chance to close out Toronto Maple Leafs at home in Game 5. They of course could not close the deal at home, lost in Toronto in Game 6 and needed one of the great miracle comebacks of all-time in Game 7 to finally advance to the second round.

Nobody with the B’s, least of all Julien, wants to have a repeat of that, no matter how glorious the ending was.

“We can learn a lot from last year,” said Julien. “Obviously, you can look at it whichever way you want. It doesn’t mean just because it’s happened before it has to be the same thing. There are different situations all the time. Right now, we have yet to lose respect for that team we are playing against. They have added some good players to their lineup last game. A guy like (Henrik) Zetterberg can only get better and his second game, better than he was in his first. So there’s a respect factor there that we have to be really good (today) if we want to end the series. If not, then we’re going back to their building and that’s something we would prefer not to do.”

The Wings have yet to get their offense going, especially from the young players like Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, who were so instrumental in getting the Wings to the postseason.